Happy October Everyone. September was a rough month for me, so I don’t have much to report. And that’s why I haven’t been on the forum much beyond a spare comment or two. I failed to meet even my reduced goal for September, but I want to use October to catch up as much as I can, so I’ve set my word goal at 40k this month. (Most months I do between 30-35k, so I don’t find this to be too unreasonable.)
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haven’t posted through here for a minute but I hope everyone’s projects are going as good as they can! (and remember to not be too harsh on yourselves! you’ve gotta be on your own side!)
I’m hoping to get the second half of my current chapter for DYVJ completed this month! It’s proving to be a lot of work. These long action sequences are slogs. Definitely a lesson for whatever project I work on next to handle fighting a bit differently, I think 
(neither the first nor the last time I’m saying that)
I’m a liiittle concerned the scene might come across as a bit arcadey (fighting opponents one after the other) but idk. Not much I can do to change that now. S’what I get for being stubborn and insisting that the third opponent can’t be a chump because she’s the boss of the enemy team.
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You probably can’t even pull the “we’re doing this for sport” card I could, either.
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My sole goal for October is to write and finish a short game for @poison_mara ‘s Halloween Jam 2025.
Already managed nearly 2500 words
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Of course! Though perhaps curated wasn’t the best word. If I thought ‘hey, that looks interesting’ when I saw the cover I probably put it on the list. Some I’ve seen, most I haven’t. It’s organized by broad type so i can pick depending on how I’m feeling that evening/midday/4am. There is also some overlap in the categories, but whatever.
Horror movie list
Surreal
Annihilation, Midsommar, Vivarium, MAD GOD, Mulholland Dr, Incantation 2022, Antrum, Jacob’s Ladder, Infinity Pool
Slasher
Fright Night, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 and 2, Slumber Party Massacre 1 and 2, Phantasm, Friday the 13th, Alien 1 2 3, Nightmare on Em Street 1 2 3 maaaybe 6
Steady/straightforward
X, Pearl, Red Rooms, Exorcist 3, Bring Her Back, Dark and the Wicked, Taking of Deborah Logan, The Thing remake, Creep 1 and 2,
Silly
Mr. Crocker, The Devil Rides Out, Masque of the Red Death, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Cabin in the Woods, Shaun of the Dead, Chopping Mall, Evil Dead 2, Grave Encounters,
And always looking for more recommendations.
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I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD HAVE CREEP 1 AND 2 ON HERE!!! those are some of my favorite movies EVER. i hope you enjoy them if you haven’t seen them yet!!! i’ll def check some of these out.
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Import/export to .txt would be more involved and would require modifying CS in a way that’s unpublishable, but you can make a robust import/export system in vanilla CS using *input_text.
Essentially, to export, you concatenate all the variable data into a long text string the player can copy to the location of their choice. To import, the player pastes the text string into *input_text and you parse the string data back into the correct variables.
In ye darke days before checkpoints, I made a system like this in order to have saves because the “make duplicate/triplicate versions of all your variables” method of making your own save system seemed miserable.
Checkpoints have rendered DIY save systems obsolete in most cases, but they’ve got a few upsides like being transferable across devices and being able to have logic to handle variables added after the save was created. The downsides are maintaining your own system and having to troubleshoot “bugs” caused when players inevitably paste bad data into the import system.
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sometimes writing this style of media (IF game) is so trippy. i can never tell if i’ve added what will seem like a lot of stuff, or only a little, because the choices and branching make it all so variable. recently i’ve been thinking “oh the chapter is still nowhere near doneeee it’s terrible,” but really i have added a lot?? it just doesn’t feel like as much cuz the variations swallow up a lot of the different text. very trippy to get used to coming from regular fiction writing.
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I’m adding some light romance content. I have never written any romance stuff before. Scary!
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That’s one of the parts that I think the readers most want and that I usually feel the least competent at. Good luck on the romance!
Thank you! – I’ll have to look into that further. I imagine it inputs ‘the save’ as a string then – I imagine that mean its capped on a certain number of characters?
Some sections that I think are going to be super long turn out to be fairly short and brief and then there are other sections that go on and on. Definetly adds levels of complexity to pacing, I think.
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In theory, yes. In practice, I’ve seen people stick the entire 48,000 character Bee movie script in there, so unless you’ve got unusual circumstances you won’t hit the cap.
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Hope you’re safe with all the flooding! It HAS been raining in Manila.
Also, updated my WIP in Westbound Travel and I’m really excited by it, if anyone wants weird cowboy fantasy times!
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Sounds great. I’ve gotten the request and updated the main topic. I’ll also try to take a look if I can.
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Thank you so much!
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I finished my intro last month but didn’t finish Day 1, partially because I decided to add 2 more scenes. I’m hoping to finish that this month, and start one of the 4 plot branches into Day 2. I also am hitting a point where I think I may need a play tester before I get so far into writing that it becomes difficult to make changes. I am working on a queer noir mystery with a locked protagonist. I don’t think there is going to be a wide audience for it. In cases like this I’m uncertain if people normally still have an open WIP, or if it’s appropriate to have a closed WIP and just look for a few people who enjoy the genre.
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Gosh, this is embarrassing to post, but here’s my attempt at a kiss scene:
Smooch
Then, Katie sits up straight. She blurts out, "Do you... like me? Like not just for the research?"
She digs her fingers into her thighs as her legs bounce. "No, no! I didn't mean..."
Focussing intently on the [i]siu mai[/i], she shoves one into her mouth. "These are... um, high in amino acids. Very functional," she mumbles through the mouthful.
"I like you."
Katie swallows hard, then faces you and starts to lean in. Then her brain catches up. Her eyes widen as she freezes, breath still, halfway to you.
This is sweet. But she's completely stuck, so you gently lean in to meet her. Katie closes her eyes, a bit too hard.
A quick kiss on her lips.
Katie doesn't dare to look, trembling slightly as she holds the moment, a smile melting onto her face.
You ease her back, and she sinks into the seat with a contented sigh.
The swing creaks in the faint breeze.
I tried to keep it less steamy. hmm…
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This kissing scene of yours seems decent enough, from the perspective of a visual novel veteran.
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Thank you! Good to know that!
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I’m working on one of my many projects, and I ran into a question. At first glance, there are a lot of similarities to Fallen Hero: a former hero reconnects with her team after a tragedy. But most of the rest of the story is different. The MC isn’t a villain, and she actually has amnesia and can’t remember her team after they rescue her.
I wanted her power to be telepathy, but I’m wondering if that’s too similar to Fallen Hero? I really like telepathy as a power, and I liked that it let her be the most physically vulnerable among the team. But is that one too many similarities to Fallen Hero?
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I think it’s totally fine!
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